FAIR WARNING: This chapter deals with torture and parent-child separation. Also, brief mild language again.
"Welcome aboard our ship, Darkwing Duck," greeted Zargon.
Darkwing was shoved off the shoulder he had been riding, and he stumbled as he landed on his feet.
"Darkwing!" The tired hero looked to his right to see Gosalyn, caged up, surrounded by beams of white light.
"Gosalyn!" Seeing his daughter this way was too much to bear. He limped over to her as quickly as he could muster, intent on finding a way to free her.
"Wait, don't touch the cage!" she warned. She spoke too late as Darkwing's hands gripped the glowing bars that trapped his daughter. Burning agony shot through his every fiber as the energy coursed through his body. It felt like he was on fire, yet he could not scream, and he could not make his hands let go as the pain slashed at every part of him continuously.
After what felt like an eternity, his hands finally released themselves from the energy cage. He stumbled back and collapsed in a trembling heap. His head throbbed, his muscles spasmed, and his ears were ringing.
"Now, now, Darkwing Duck, let's not be hasty. I know emotions have a habit of overwhelming you Earthlings." Zargon briefly chuckled. "But I'm afraid you'll not be freeing your daughter. And if you want to remain alive, you won't try again."
Darkwing his neck up in the general direction of the voice, wincing as the movement aggravated the throbbing muscles.
Zargon stood up slowly and revealed his full height, cutting down down the already discouraged duck with a condescending gaze. Even if Darkwing were to stack two of himself on top of each other, he wouldn't quite reach the top of Zargon's head.
The Evronian commander snatched Darkwing by the scruff of his neck like a stray animal and held him up to his face. "I'm sure you have been made familiar with the brawn of our great soldiers, even if a tiny being like yourself managed to give them somewhat of a challenge."
"All in a day's work for Darkwing Duck," Darkwing wheezed, his throat burning as it forced the words out of his beak.
Zargon shook his head. "Even at your weak state, you must always have the last word." His smile vanished to seriousness. "How pathetic." He let go of Darkwing and watched him fall worthlessly into a pile at his feet. "Contact Chief Scientist Zoster. I shall be alerting him of his impending delivery."
"I obey, Commander," droned an Evronian.
Zargon turned to Gosalyn and smirked. "I think you are going to enjoy Venus, little one."
"Not so fast, fiend," Darkwing hissed through his teeth.
Zargon returned his gaze to Darkwing. "Would you like to repeat that?" he threatened.
Darkwing was lifting himself to his knees. His arms trembled and twinged with the effort. "I said not so fast."
His voice was shaky but firm. Resolute.
Zargon snapped his thin fingers, and Darkwing was forced to his knees with his hands restrained behind his back. "Your bull-headed resolve is something to be praised, Darkwing Duck." His jovial tone switched to sternness. "However, I hope you realize you are not in a position to bargain with the Evronians."
"I don't care!" Darkwing spat back, desperate. "Take me and let Gosalyn go."
"Dad, are you nuts?!" Gosalyn shouted.
Zargon sneered at Darkwing and chuckled low in his throat. It soon became laughs, and it wasn't long before Zargon threw his head back and cackled openly. The echoing laughter was like a gut punch to Darkwing's pride, the only thing the energy cage didn't break. Each one seemed to beg the question why he even bothered to try when he was so obviously defeated, so obviously outsmarted that it would be stupid to go on.
He knew why. Because no one touched his girl.
Zargon calmed down and looked at Darkwing. "You may be a boisterous and flamboyant being yourself, but you see, you poor fool, your daughter has the emotional power of three Earth beings twice her age." Zargon stood up and slunk to the cage, kneeling down when he arrived at Gosalyn's side. Darkwing's adrenaline surged as the commander reached into the cage carefully and stroked Gosalyn's soft cheek. She jerked her head away and fell backward. "Perfect food for the Evronian empire and much more valuable than a joker with a hat and cape."
"Don't you touch her!" Darkwing tried to shake off the soldier but was stopped with a punch to his back.
Zargon gingerly stepped toward Darkwing and knelt, lifting his beak so their eyes met. "So, really, we should be thanking you, Darkwing Duck, the Earthling that doomed his entire race, and ushered in a new age for Evron." Darkwing broke out in a cold sweat looking into the Evronian's evil, hungry eyes.
Darkwing swallowed and, with as much physical and mental strength as he could work up, spat at the commander, point blank. "Thank that, you bastard."
All in the room gasped. Zargon didn't even flinch as he wiped the saliva from his beak. He studied Darkwing for the briefest moment, his face stoic. Then, even quicker, he shoved his blaster into Darkwing's side and fired.
White-hot energy surged into Darkwing, forcing him to relive the pain he experienced mere moments ago. Darkwing screamed in absolute torment. Zargon drank in his tortured, anguished expression and licked his beak in satisfaction. After what seemed like hours of pure suffering, the pistol was removed from Darkwing and he was whacked across the beak with it.
"Dad, no!" Gosalyn screamed.
Zargon whipped around to face her, and she covered her mouth.
"Father?" sneered Zargon, his beak curling upward. "Well, isn't that a shame?" The deep tone echoed in Darkwing's ears as he heaved, his body trembling with the effort of drawing in each pained breath.
"Sir, Zoster is patching us through," an Evronian called out to his leader.
Zargon turned to face the Holo-Communicator as the figure of Zoster, the scientist, was phased in. The goggles he wore tempered the green glow of his eyes, which carried an aura of sly intelligence. His aqua robe reached down to the floor.
"Commander Zargon, I believe you have good tidings for us?" said the scientist, his thin, gravelly voice piercing through the speakers.
"I do. We have the girl in custody."
"Excellent! We are ready to receive her anytime. You have the thanks of the entire scientific community."
"I only hope your experiments are fruitful to us, great scientist. Might and power!" Zargon declared.
"Might and power," Zoster responded, bowing his head. As quickly as it had arrived, Zoster's image faded from the Holo-Communicator.
Zargon rose again and turned away from Darkwing. "Prepare the warp disc and set coordinates for Venus. As for the Earthling, tranquilize him and prepare a pod for him. A single-seater."
Darkwing felt a sharp prick shoot through his arm. Almost immediately, he could feel the cold numbness beginning to overtake his body.
The cage disappeared from around Gosalyn. As soon as she was freed, she made a beeline for the elevator, but an Evronian snatched her up before she could even step down. She beat at his fist with all her might, but it was ineffective as he placed her onto the circular platform beside the cage. A clear tube rose up from the disc as soon as she landed, enclosing her once again.
She rammed her fists on the tube and yelled for Darkwing, her cries muffled and useless.
He slumped onto his side, utterly paralyzed. As his vision grew dark and fuzzy, all he wanted to see was Gosalyn.
The little girl he saved from Taurus Bulba. The little girl who changed his life into something better.
His Little Girl Blue.
He wanted her to be the last thing he saw as he shed a tear, and accepted defeat.
A white light began to envelop Gosalyn. It grew brighter and brighter as the warp disc whirred to life.
She pressed herself against the tube and screamed, "DADDY!" With that last haunting cry, the light had swallowed her whole. The light surged in brightness and suddenly dissipated. Gosalyn was gone and the tube was quickly retracted as the warp disc finished its work.
Gosalyn's scream echoed in his mind as the Astro-Raider's bridge faded away, allowing the blackness to take over.
As the warp disc powered down, Zargon smiled and pressed his fingertips together in vindication. Gosalyn was in their hands, and Darkwing Duck had been thoroughly broken.
His earlier embarrassment at the hands of Duck Avenger was long gone. This moment, he knew, belonged to Evron.
"Hey, sorry to barge in unannounced, but I've come for a friend of mine."
Zargon's mood was shattered like glass as he recognized a familiar taunting voice. All eyes turned toward the elevator to see Duck Avenger inside, hand on his hip.
Two Evronians closest to the elevator dove for the duck. He easily slid out of the way, leaving the soldiers to slam into the elevator railing.
"What are you doing here, you annoying little insect?!" sputtered Zargon.
"Would you believe me if I said I hitchhiked?" said Duck Avenger, firing the phaser on his X-Transformer. The blast sent a group of soldiers clean off their feet.
Zargon fired back at Duck Avenger, his eyes wild. "This is for last night, meddling swine!"
"And this is for Darkwing!" Duck Avenger rebutted, shooting the fist attachment at Zargon's abdomen. The Evronian grunted, his phaser slipping from his grasp. Duck Avenger ran up and struck Zargon across the face with the X-Transformer. He collided with another soldier, and both careened to the deck.
Zargon shoved the soldier off him and pushed himself up to a sitting position against a computer station. He was winded, and his jaw stung. He looked to the elevator to see Duck Avenger waving, the passed out Darkwing inside the cab with him. His beak dropped open in alarm.
"Arrivederci, pinheads!" he jeered, and the elevator closed before any Evronian could reach the ducks.
"Blast!" Zargon snarled, slamming his fist against the desk at his humiliation.
"Um, sir, are you alright?" came the snivel of Kursaal from above him.
Rage overtook Zargon and he shot up straight and clasped Kursaal's throat around his hands. "Do you think I'm alright, you hopeless wretch?! That infuriating Duck Avenger has made me look a fool once again!" He shook his second-in-command back and forth forcefully, then threw him to the ground in utter disgust and stomped toward his captain's chair.
"But sir, Zoster has the girl," a soldier pointed out. Zargon shot a glare at the soldier who dared defy him, and the poor Evronian immediately turned back to his computer, acting as if he hadn't spoken in the first place.
The burning anger melted away slowly from Zargon, and his face turned neutral again. He turned to address his whole crew. "He is right. The girl is in Zoster's hands now, which means our mission has been accomplished. We shall return to Venus immediately and report back to General Zondag on our success. Glory to Evron!"
"Might and power!" chorused each Evronian voice.
Zargon stared out at the planet Earth. The puny planet that was one step closer to falling to Evron. The planet that would provide billions of new Freezeflames to cater to the Evronian will.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Gulp. The Evronians have Gosalyn. Darkwing is beaten to within an inch of his life. But Duck Avenger has swooped in and bailed his buddy out. This means a long Recovery in Ducklair Tower to be had next time. See ya in 3!